Two German states on Sunday agreed to support a euro1.5 billion ($2.11 billion) bridge loan for General Motors Corp.’s Opel unit, putting the final touches on a deal with Canada’s Magna International Inc. to acquire the automaker. Under the deal, pushed through to protect Opel before GM’s likely bankruptcy filing on Monday, Magna will take a 20 percent stake in Opel and the Russian-owned Sberbank will take a 35 percent stake, giving their consortium a majority. GM will retain a 35 percent holding, while the remaining 10 percent will go to Opel employees. “The time of uncertainty is over,” North Rhine-Westphalia governor Juergen Ruettgers said of the deal. “The main components of Opel’s future remain in Europe.” The German government and four state governments where Opel has operations have now pledged to provide a euro1.5 billion ($2.11 billion) bridge loan for the deal, part of which will be available immediately. Following agreement on the plan early Saturday after talks through the night, the governors of Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate immediately approved their respective shares of euro52 million ($73.31 million) and euro100 million ($140.98 million). The state parliaments in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, where coalition governments are in control, voted Sunday to approve their respective shares of euro447 million ($630.18 million) and euro150 million ($211.47 million). “We’ve decided that there is to be a new European company,” Hesse governor Roland Koch said. “I think that for Opel and its employees it is an unbelievable chance.” Opel employs 25,000 people in Germany, nearly half of GM Europe’s work force. http://horisly.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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Opel close to Magna as funnding approval by German states